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paranormal adjective earlier than 1920

paranormal adjective earlier than 1920

Evidence from 1905 was supplied by ‘hugooooo’; antedating evidence of the noun usage was supplied by Bryn.

Perhaps it is fitting that mystery surrounds the appearance of the word paranormal, but can you help us solve it?

Before a word is included in the OED, there has to be evidence of its usage in print. Occasionally, even after extensive research, the earliest use we can find is from another dictionary:

Paranormal, designating phenomena analogous to physical phenomena but with no known physical cause, as mediumistic ‘raps’, telekinesis, etc.

1920 Webster’s New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang.

But for paranormal to have been included by Webster’s, the word can’t simply have appeared through the ether, so there must be some earlier examples out there. In this run up to Hallowe’en, can you help the OED editors track them down?